Saturday, September 28, 2013

A while back we posted about the Solomon Kane movie's North American distribution being held up. We have good news about that and then I rambled on a bit...

Solomon Kane's Homecoming

First a little update and heads up. The Solomon Kane
film is finally available here in the States. Well on Netflix anyway.
Both disc and streaming! And well worth the wait. Don't get me wrong
it's as far from the mark as any other film based on Howard's works.
When it comes to accuracy, adaptation, portrayal and all that, but it's
quite a bit better than most of them.

It's not really based on
any one Howard stories that I recall, but it's been some time since I've
read them. If you guessed that it's an origin story, move to the head
of the movie cliché class. Yes instead of adapting the written words,
they make up their own origin. That being said it was still quite fun,
and probably the best use in film of Howard's work to date.

I'd put it on the top of any list of Howard films, second only to The Whole Wide World,
the 1996 biography based on One Who Walked Alone and Day of the
Stranger: Further Memories of Robert E. Howard. Both memoirs by Novalyne
Price Ellis, who was a close friend of and briefly dated Howard. The
film stars Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert Howard and depicts him explaining
his work and often reciting it to Novalyne. If you know the tragic end,
watching the brief possible beginnings of what might have been, becomes
all the more tragic to watch, but still a very satisfying film.

I
only wish George Lucas had seen The Whole Wide World, before making his second three Star
Wars films. There is a point in this film where despite you knowing a
character's tragic end, you care so much about the characters you still
hope they find away to avoid the inevitable. As opposed to the second
Star Wars Trilogy. Did anyone care enough about Anakin so much you
didn't want him to get Vadered? No. Anakin was a whiney jerk with a hot
girlfriend. There was way more wrong than the bland portrayal of young Obi
Wan, but it didn't help, (Why would he act so much like the older, tortured by the past, version of himself?) It was
a bleak time for longtime Star Wars fans. Until the wonderful apology
from George Lucas, that was the Clone Wars tv series.

Back to Robert E. Howard. My list of Howard films in the order I like 'em...

Kull the Conqueror was originally supposed to the third of a planned trilogy of Arnold films and is loosely based on Robert E. Howard's The Hour of the Dragon (also known as Conan the Conqueror), only replacing Conan with Kull but keeping the basic plot the same.

Don't forget TV, unless you have ANYTHING ELSE TO DO!

Conan
the Adventurer (1997) Was a horrible one hour live action series that
lasted one season, starring Ralf Moeller based on the Arnold movie
series. This show made Arnold's movie look like a Shakespearian play.

There were a couple of lame cartoons...

Conan the Adventurer - 1992 An animated series that lasted 64 episodes

Conan
and the Young Warriors - 1994 An animated series described as a
spin-off to the previous Conan the Adventurer animated series, this one
lasted only 13 episodes.

There was a direct to dvd animated movie
in the works, Conan: Red Nails, based upon the Robert E. Howard novella
of the same name. The last thing I heard about this one was that it was
partially completed but stalled during production.

I'll be back...

There
appears to be a sequel to Arnold's 1982 Conan film in the works,
starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, called The Legend of Conan, scheduled
for 2014. When asked if this film would be a "pass the torch" film and
introduce a son to the franchise, (like the last installment Indiana
Jones) The producers answered as if they didn't know Conan even had a
son in the books. The film's plot is supposedly about Conan long after
he had been king, making some sort of return. Funny how the guy who was
once too good to do a third Conan movie (Conan the Conqueror/Kull the
Conqueror), is now willing to go back to do what looks to be a much
worse film. What's next Kindergarten Cop 2 or maybe Triplets, with Sly
Stallone or maybe Eddie Murphy as the lost third brother?

EDIT:
HOLY CRAP I WAS JUST KIDDING!!!! While looking for images for this
blogpost I found out that at the Expendables 2 panel at Comic-Con in
2012, Arnold announced a sequel to Twins entitled Triplets which would
bring back Schwarzenegger, his co-star Danny DeVito, and introduce Eddie
Murphy as their long-lost third brother. Should I be sad or shocked by
actually predicting this stupid movie...

Screw the movies

With
Howard's works entering public domain there are quite a few new
collections of his work most are fine, there is even a nice set of books
reprinting Howards Western stories. But by far, if you want to really
enjoy some Robert E. Howard, as if it was the first time you had ever
read his writings, there is a series of books published by Del Rey,
reprinting Howard's works UNEDITED, and including some great additional
materials. Howard's original notes, drafts, synopsis, untitled
fragments, unfinished fragments and other historical bits and pieces.
These are beautifully designed books, with some amazing artists
providing new illustrations. I have collected Howard's work for many
years, and I have many used bookstore and garage sale finds. Usually
beat up paperback volumes of partially redundant anthologies with
various covers, but the Del Rey editions are truly special. I have
mostly the large size paperbacks and one Hardcover I was lucky to find
at Half Priced books. There may be more coming, but these are all I have
so far...

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Bloody Crown of Conan
The Conquering Sword of Conan
The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
Kull: Exile of Atlantis
Bran Mak Morn: The Last King
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Crimson Shadows
The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 2: Grim Lands

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Big Things Come in Small Packages...

Hi Brian, why don’t we start with what your Kickstarter is about?

I make these comics the size of a pack of matches. I’m basically
running the Kickstarter to sell subscriptions so that I can pay the
artists a decent wage for their work. I have 80 books done & I want
to make it to 100 in the next six months or so.

What are some of the key incentives that people can look forward to if they pledge?

I’m not really doing anything too super crazy this time out. Comics,
digital comics, buttons. I’ve done a few other Kickstarters that I let
take over my life, so I’m doing this one in a way I can handle.

So, how has the response been so far?

Kickstarter has been really great for me on my comic projects. I set a
low financial goal that just covers my printing costs, but my personal
goal is to make it to 200 subscribers. I’m not sure if that is a
reasonable or unreasonable goal as of yet. Time will tell I suppose.

From Flicker to Flame....

Okay, let’s get into more about how this works and how these comics are made…

Well, because of the registration errors & stuff from front side to
backside, I can’t just have these comics photocopied, I have to print
them myself at home which takes some time. I also have to cut them by
hand & fold & staple them. So they take a little while. I’m
probably selling myself way short selling them for just a dollar or two
with the amount of labor I am doing, but it keeps me out of trouble.

What size do the artists usually draw their pages at before sending off to you?

It varies by artist. I've had stuff come in at roughly 500% size &
other stuff at about 100% size. I think most people work at about 133%
to 200%. I personally work at 133% for stick figures & 200% for
more legit drawings.

Any plans to do some of these in color, whether it be the paper selection or printed in color?

I have done a couple things in color (Small Art Series, the cover for
Astronaut Jane), but it's too expensive & it's actually harder to
make out the images because my color printer isn't quite as sharp. But I
do think about doing a black & white & red thing at times. I'm a
sucker for that. As for the colored paper, one of the new ones
(Insomniac) comes on gray paper. I might do something like that for some
of the covers or something at some point. I probably should, just a
matter of time to get something that it makes sense with.

Brian tell us about your fascination with doing comics on the size of a matchbook. What’s the appeal?

I started doing some things in weird formats because I felt the rise
of the internet in the 1990s was making normal zine culture die a bit
& it made having an interesting format be as important as the
content. So that’s how I stumbled into the format, trying to make
something that would be recognizable as kind of a cool collectible
object. I stuck with it because I think it really lends to a lot of my
strengths as a writer. I love doing things that are super short, but
somewhat dense at the same time. I also like the idea that it takes
five minutes to read or share & is a combination of disposable &
collectible that I think comics are supposed to be, but have fallen
away from in the past 30 years.

For those wondering what are the challenges you and your artists have encountered doing these? What are the pleasant surprises?

The challenge at times have been getting people to see they aren’t just
a novelty because of their size. That they actually have stories.
When I first started sending them out they got tons of reviews, but now
that everyone has seen them they would have to review the stories as
well, which is a bit harder & is the problem all indie comics have.
The pleasant surprises are always when someone got one somewhere &
then buys 20 more. It is a shame in a way that sales are so validating.

How
does it work? Can you take us through the process? Do you type a script
and send them on their way and worry about format later or is there a
template? If there are various ways you and your creative team have gone
about making these can you give us some examples?

I start out with a handwritten script. I fight writing things out by
hand I’m more willing to cross things out & re-work things. Then I
type it in the computer as what I guess would be a third or fourth draft
& then I lay the text out & some times need to change things a
bit to keep a decent amount of drawing space on the page (each page is
one panel). Then I send that out as a template & some people leave
the typed words & other people letter them. I try to be as open
& collaborative as possible as far as letting the artist do enough
interpretation to have fun. (Interesting side story, the protagonist of
Worms I assumed was a teenage boy (the whole thing is in first person,
so I just identified it as myself), but Kimberlee Traub drew it as a
girl as the main character, which I think made the story way more
interesting.)

Occasionally I might put in a reference photo or a sketch. Sometimes
I’ll send a script over before I lay it out for suggestion from an
artist. Sometimes I’ll ask an artist to name something they want to
draw so I can work it into a story. I have done a couple things where I
get the art first & construct a story after with varying degrees of
success.

What’s
the next ideal project novelty wise? Would you ever consider going the
opposite route and maybe doing a comic larger on a vinyl sleeve? Maybe
even combining your music with your comic creating?

Katherine Wirick did a comic that was a poster with a hundred panels
on it or something & that was really incredible to see & I’d
kind of love to do something like that, but I’m not sure if I ever
actually will as when I tried to years ago I couldn’t figure out a way
to get things printed as I’d like. I do want to try to do something
with a story that has 50 panels on individual pieces of paper that the
user interacts with making the order to tell the story, but making that
happen might be impossible. I think if I do ever get the story that
does that to work, I might do a guerilla thing with posting individual
panels on light poles & bulletin boards around various towns &
people will discover the story in that way.

A few years ago I did a thing with Remora's Mecha that was a comic
& CD together that I thought was really cool, but sales weren’t
great on it because it came in a metal tin so it couldn’t be stocked
with regular discs in shops. I did do a music video a couple years ago
with some paper doll stop motion animation & I think that might be
the best way to combine those two things.

Bright Future and Expanding Ideas...

Are
these the only format that these stories will take place in? You
mentioned earlier about wanting to do something 50 panel large or poster
sized but were struggling for a method or approach? Could these small
comics maybe see another run in a larger or collected format?

I have occasionally done stuff where I have some of the comics as two
page spreads that I would put on display while at an art gallery or
whatever & maybe I should sell some of them as posters in that way.
I've also had a couple things appear in anthologies where I shifted the
images around to fit the format. I do plan to make something
collecting Ultimate Lost Kisses when I finish it that will probably be
four of my pages on each page of a book & if that is successful, I
might try that with some other books. It's weird, because I like the
format. I know with normal comics I like to get the whole story, so you
think I'd be a wait for the trade guy, but I find reading a stack of
individual comics that would form a trade more rewarding. I think that
the four panels on a page might be a good compromise for me. as far as
it still feeling a bit like my minis do as matchbook size. I don't
know.

For a while I was making a lot of slideshow stuff of the books & I
still make the digital versions as PDFs, but ideally for me the
physical size of the book is part of the whole package. I don't know, I
flip flop a bit about things because if there was a super high demand
for the books as they are now, I wouldn't be able to write new ones
because I would be too busy on the physical assembly aspect of things.

Lastly where can they find out more about this kickstarter and any other works or websites you want to share with the readers?

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